I was very impressed with this
orchestra’s last Sibelius offering (reviewreview)
and on this new disk there is even more to admire and enjoy.

Nightride and Sunrise
has long been a favourite work of mine – the galloping forward
momentum, with flashes of themes rushing across the musical
landscape, the journey we’re taken on. As we approach the sunrise,
which is the second half of the work, the music broadens and
becomes lighter; with the dawning of a new day the terrors of
the night pass. This is truly magnificent stuff. Inkinen and
his orchestra convey the ride well, and the relentlessness of
the barren landscape through which we are traveling is laid
out before us; when dawn breaks there is the most wonderful
horn playing, and later, the woodwind figurations are delicate
and precise. Towards the end there is the most brilliant climax
which Inkinen builds with care and places it perfectly within
his concept of the piece as a whole. This is almost as fine
a performance as my favourite by the London Symphony an Antal
Dorati (EMI
Gemini 585 7852) which no collection
should be without.

Nothing can really follow Nightride
and Sunrise and the poor little Pan and Echo doesn’t
stand a chance, which is a shame for it is a lovely piece –
one of Sibelius’s many examples of light music: I am sure that
many of us made our first acquaintance with this work on an
EMI LP of Sibelius’s lighter music played by the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic under Charles Groves (now available on EMI
Classics Gemini 7243 5 85532 2 2). It’s a winsome little
piece, a gorgeous slow opening section giving way to a bacchanalian
dance

Belshazzar’s Feast was a play by Hjalmar
Procopé, which has sunk without trace. The complete incidental
music was recorded by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra
as part of the BIS complete Sibelius series (BIS–CD–735, coupled
with the incidental music to Jedermann, op.83 (1916))
but it is the Suite, heard here, which has achieved many
recordings since Kajanus’s pioneering 78s made in 1931. The
four movements are full of mock eastern promise and are wholly
uncharacteristic of their composer, but they are very enjoyable
nonetheless. But this incidental music pales beside the superb
pieces from Kuolema (Death), a play by Sibelius’s
brother–in–law Armas Järnefelt – the complete incidental music
can be found on BIS–CD–915 played by the Lahti Symphony under
Vänskä, coupled with the incidental music to Karelia
(1893). What is interesting about these four pieces is that
they were created from the incidental music and have found places
in the repertoire – especially the Valse triste, tinged,
as it is, with a bitter sweet melancholy. Scene with Cranes
is a very dramatic piece, while Canzonetta is an elegiac
movement for stings and the Valse romantique is just
that. A Finnish waltz? What will they think of next? These last
two pieces are more of Sibelius’s huge catalogue of lighter
pieces and they are charming.

Between these two sets of theatre music come
two more light miniatures. The Dryad is a peculiar little
piece for it has big intentions. There’s a strange chromatic
figure which keeps re–appearing on strings and winds, some beautiful
muted string music, and a big brass dominated climax near the
beginning. It’s strangely static for the music seems suspended
in mid air, with no real idea of where it is going, but yet
it’s a very complete and satisfying miniature. The following
Tanz–Intermezzo is another oddity; part suave waltz, part fandango, complete with
castanets.

As with Inkinen’s previous Sibelius disk this is very enjoyable and
with the orchestra recorded slightly away from the microphones
you can turn up the volume and have a wonderful aural experience
for the recorded sound is magnificent. I loved every minute
of it and this is a real must have which should not be missed
at any cost.

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